The present invention relates generally to a display and housing unit for any multiple component display assembly and, more particularly, a single piece in-mold display and housing unit which reduces the component count and cost of any device that utilizes a display in an enclosed assembly.
A significant number of electronic devices in use today, such as, but not limited to computer monitors, cellular and PCS telephones, internet appliances, personal digital assistants (PDAs), home audio equipment, video cassette recorders, kitchen appliances feature multiple component displays. Multiple component displays are display devices that are composed of an internal display sub-assembly that may include various discreet component parts in addition to the simple display itself and in-turn is housed within some type of enclosure. The multiple component displays being used today are assembled as separate sub-components that are then joined together, with the other components of the electronic device, into a final assembly. Unfortunately, the manufacture of the electronic devices with these multiple component displays involve many distinct assembly steps and are usually too complex to be performed by machinery, and hence, requiring human operator interaction. For example, a cellular/PCS telephone handset usually includes a multiple component display sub-assembly consisting of a front cover housing, a lens, a liquid-crystal display (LCD) and or light-emitting diode display (LED), and various fastening components such as screws and/or adhesive gaskets, etc. These various pieces of the multiple component display must be arranged into the appropriate order and bound together, via the screws and/or adhesive gaskets into a sub-assembly that is then attached via screws, snaps, adhesive gaskets, or is welded or soldered to the printed circuit board (PCB) and then is assembled into the cellular/PCS telephone handset.
Alternative methods of assembling the electronic devices involve the use of fastening features, such as snaps, interference bosses, ultrasonic welding features, etc., which are incorporated onto the molded housing. These fastening features are then used during the assembly process to fasten the multiple component display to the enclosure. Yet another method for assembling of the electronic devices involve the fastening of the multiple component display between two enclosure covers which are bound together using screws, adhesives, ultrasonic welding, etc.
A major disadvantage of currently available methods for assembling the electronic devices with the multiple component display is the high cost associated with such methods. Part of the high assembly cost is incurred by the large number components used by these methods. The assembly process itself is also costly, since it is made unnecessarily complex due to the large number of separate manufacturing steps involved in the application of these methods.
The large number of component parts and the complex assembly processes involved with the currently available methods for fastening the multiple component display to the final enclosure continues to drive the manufacturers of these devices to find ways to reduce component count and assembly complexity. The new ways of assembling component display must not only reduce assembly costs (by reducing component count and assembly complexity), but they must be sufficiently flexible in order to permit the assembly of new types of component displays as they themselves continue to be designed and developed.
The present invention is directed to provide a combined display and housing unit for any electronic device that utilizes a component display and multiple housing components. The method comprises the steps of:
(1) providing a display constructed of any display substrate material, for example, glass, polycarbonate film, nylon film;
(2) optionally, discreet or embedded electronic components, for example, resistors, drivers, capacitors, inductors may be soldered onto said display;
(3) inserting said display into a mold having a surface which matches the three-dimensional shape of said display substrate; and
(4) injecting a molten resin, for example, polycarbonate, ABS, silicon rubber, or magnesium into said mold through a plurality of gates behind said display to produce a one-piece, permanently bonded three-dimensional product suitable for use in electronic devices.
The disclosed process eliminates the need for assembling a component display into a discrete component that is in turn fastened to a component housing unit via adhesives, snaps, clips, welds, or solder. By molding the display substrate directly into the component housing unit, the steps involved in combining the component display with the component housing unit are eliminated. Additionally, the permanent fusing of the display and the component housing unit results in a single unit that is both mechanically and chemically more reliable and robust than a comparable unit that is joined via some bonding process.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a method for reducing both the component count and the assembly complexity involved in the assembly of electronic devices with displays.
It is another object of the present invention to produce a single unit comprising of a display and a component housing unit that is both mechanically and chemically more robust and a comparable unit formed by simply bonding such elements.
It is yet another object of the present invention to permit rapid design changes to the display used in an electronic device without requiring significant changes to be made to the design of the component housing unit.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.